


After Three Deca-Phoebs

by aro_ace_rose_weasley



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Back to Earth, Happy Ending, M/M, Reunions, Shadam, adashi, but thats ok because Shiro is canonically lgbt+!!!!, its way too late but adashi runs my life now apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 11:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15412107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aro_ace_rose_weasley/pseuds/aro_ace_rose_weasley
Summary: Adam said he wasn't going to wait for Shiro, and it looked like Adam kept his word. Shiro recognizes that Adam moved on, and promises Keith he won't go find Adam after all the paladins leave for home.Shiro is worse at keeping his promises than Adam, apparently.





	After Three Deca-Phoebs

They finally made it back home. They survived the overwhelming amount of debriefing and interviews, and now everyone just wanted to take some time to finally be with their families. Hunk and Lance left as soon as physically possible for their families in the Philippines and Cuba respectively, as their families were too big and far away to feasibly make the trip to the Garrison, where all the paladins had been staying. Colleen and Sam Holt joined Pidge and Matt almost as soon as they had all reached the Garrison since Sam had enough Garrison connections to find out about their arrival even before it went public. Even Keith was planning to take a trip out to his old shack with Krolia for some family time.

Shiro was the only one without anywhere or anyone to run off to.

Of course, Keith was quick to invite Shiro with him and Krolia, but Shiro couldn’t convince himself to leave the Garrison yet, even though it hurt him to admit it.

“Thanks Keith, but I don’t want to intrude,” Shiro spoke softly, a kind smile ghosting his lips. “I’ll just stay here and keep Allura, Coran, and Romelle company. Help them adjust to Earth.”

“Shiro…” Keith said hesitantly, concern written all over his face, “I know what you’re thinking. Are you really sure you want to stay here? I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I know, he had plenty of opportunities to come to see me, he’s made his feelings clear. He moved on, and so can I. I’ll stay away, I promise,” Shiro whispered, hoping his voice didn’t betray how broken he felt. It did.

“Just, please be careful,” Keith advised, and then they exchanged goodbyes and Shiro was left feeling alone, despite having three Alteans right beside him.

 

Shiro stayed true to his promise to Keith for the first quintet, plus a little extra.

 _Day,_ Shiro mentally corrected himself, astonished by the way he had gotten used to the strange Altean time units.

He had every intention of keeping the promise longer, maybe even forever, but Shiro’s luck had never been the best. Shiro’s insomnia had only worsened since returning to Earth, and the emptiness of his new room eventually became too much for Shiro to stand, so Shiro wandered the familiar, brightly lit halls of the Garrison.

He hadn’t been giving much thought to where he was walking, trusting that he would still be able to remember how to get back to his room from anywhere in the complex. In fact, Shiro had just been considering heading back when a sudden observation made him freeze in his tracks.

He was in the hall where all the instructors’ offices were. Almost all of them were dark, as Shiro would expect since it was probably two in the morning, but the light was still on in one office. One very, very familiar office.

Shiro knew he had to walk away, to turn around and forget he was ever there. But despite everything that his head was saying, Shiro found himself moving closer and closer to that one lit office.

 _Maybe it’s not even his office anymore,_ Shiro tried to reason with himself as he raised a fist to knock on the door. He deliberately avoided looking at the name plaque because he didn’t know what he would do if the plaque didn’t read _his_ name. Or what he would do if it did.

 _Knock. Knock. Knock._ Shio’s fist connected with the wooden door three times, sealing Shiro’s fate. He felt like his chest was going to cave in as he waited for an eternity, or maybe it was just a few moments, for a response.

“I’m fine, Sarah, rea-” the voice Shiro knew all too well, the only one he didn’t forget after all his years in space, cut off as the door swung open and the owner of the voice realized that he was not standing in front of Sarah.

Adam looked more exhausted than Shiro remembered him. His hair was a little longer a less neat, he looked like he had lost some weight, and he had bags under his eyes that rivaled finals week junior year when they had pulled three all-nighters in four days. He was staring at Shiro in shock, gripping the office door as if it was the only thing holding him up.

“Ta-Takashi?” The voice was so small that Shiro almost didn’t hear it.

“I know you said you weren’t going to wait for me, but I was still hoping I would see you when I came back,” Shiro confessed, not making eye contact but also not being able to tear his eyes away from the man in front of him. He grabbed his own hands to stop himself from reaching out.

“I didn’t know if it was my place,” Adam said shortly, but Shiro noticed how Adam’s voice quivered with emotion.

“It will always be your place, as long as you want it.”

“Takashi,” Adam repeated, his voice breaking and his hands letting go of the door as he threw himself at Shiro.

The sudden weight hitting Shiro threw him off balance but he managed to catch Adam and keep both of them from falling to the floor. Adam buried his face in Shiro’s shoulder and Shiro could feel the other man’s shaky breaths as Adam cried. Shiro rested his head on Adam’s as he felt tears falling down his own face as well. After all of that time in space, Shiro never let himself believe that he would ever get to hold Adam again, even if they did make it back home eventually. It almost felt too good to be true, as if at any minute Shiro would wake up and he’d be back in bed, alone.

He didn’t wake up though, and after a minute or two, Adam stepped back, out of Shiro’s arms. Shiro let him, not wanting to overstep his boundaries. He’s the one who made them meet up again; he was going to let Adam be in control of their interactions.

Adam just stood there silently, about an arms-length away, staring at Shiro. It made Shiro feel self-conscious as he remembered how different he looked from the last time they spoke.

“Oh Takashi,” Adam finally said, repeating Shiro’s name as if he couldn’t believe he was saying it. He reached out to touch Shiro’s arm right above the stump, then up farther to run his fingers through his hair and let his thumb brush Shiro’s cheek, right along the edge of his scar. “What did they do to you?” His voice sounded impossibly sad.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, all that matters is that I made it back,” Shiro insisted. He was more than willing to tell Adam everything that he was put through, but now was not the time, not by a long shot.

“How can you say it doesn’t matter? You lost an entire arm!” Adam exclaimed disbelievingly as he shook his head. The exasperation was betrayed by a small ghost of a smile on his face. Adam carefully took Shiro’s one hand and led him into his office, shutting the door behind them. It gave them the idea of privacy despite the fact that it was the middle of the night and they were alone anyways.

Shiro let out a humorless laugh as he and Adam settled in by leaning side by side against Adam’s desk, just close enough so that they were brushing up against each other whenever one of them moved. “If only that was all I lost,” he replied, thinking about the time he spent in the astral plane, without any sort of body whatsoever. As soon as he saw Adam’s panicked look, though, he wanted to take back the comment entirely. “I mean,” Shiro continued quickly, “I lost my arm a few deca-phoebs ago, it’s something I’m used to now. There are other things that are more recent that I’m still getting used to, like not having a prosthetic while I’m waiting for the Olkarion to send me a new one like they promised.” _Or like living in the body of my clone._

The worry didn’t leave Adam’s face, but it was joined by confusion and even a little humor. “I don’t know if you remember but those of us stuck on Earth aren’t familiar with all of those terms,” Adam joked, and Shiro had to repeat himself in his head to remember what he said that was strange.

“Quiznak,” he sighed apologetically. Adam’s smirk grew and his left eyebrow rose up, and Shiro smiled before taking a deep breath to continue, using Earth terms this time. “I meant crap. Alteans, the alien race that we traveled with, use different measurements of time, and since we were using their technology, it was just easier to adapt to their terms,” he explained. “A deca-phoeb is something like a year. I lost my arm sometime before I crashed into Earth that first time. So it was between two and three years ago. And then the Olkarion are an alien race we freed from enslavement a while ago, they have this amazing technology that uses plants and nature, and I’m hoping it will make this new prosthetic feel more natural than the old one, which was made from a much less friendly alien race.”

Adam’s face fell during Shiro’s explanation, and Shiro could see insecurity taking control. “It sounds like you’ve seen more than I could ever imagine,” Adam spoke quietly.

“And there’s nowhere in the universe that I’d rather be than right here, with you,” Shiro replied wholeheartedly. Shiro suddenly remembered something he hadn’t told anyone on Earth yet. “I almost forgot, not all of the changes that happened to me were bad! Does anything seem impossible about me?”

“You mean besides the fact that you’re actually alive and standing here with me?” Adam asked sarcastically.

“After being gone for how long?” Shiro prompted.

“Three years.”

“Three years of high-stress and high-intensity action,” Shiro continued. “And I’m not only alive but also…”

After a few ticks, Adam’s eyes lit up with understanding and disbelief. “You’re healthy! You’re still standing and you were even strong enough to catch me earlier! But how?” Adam questioned.

“I’ll tell you everything, but please, just for tonight, just don’t look the gift horse in the mouth and take the win,” Shiro responded, smiling. The healing of his degenerative muscle disease was a long process that he suspected began back when Haggar experimented on him and continued everytime he was in the healing pods in the castle, but the disease wasn't gone until Shiro had his clone's body, a body that had been built without the disease at all. "I should probably head back soon, I think Allura wants us to go out to Keith’s shack tomorrow. She wants to see how he managed to find the lion almost all on his own.”

Adam laughed quietly. “Because he’s just an impossible kid,” he chuckled.

“You’ve got that right,” Shiro agreed. He knew he shouldn’t ask what he was about to ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “You’re more than welcome to come with me- with us- tomorrow. I’d love to introduce you, plus I’m sure Keith would be happy to see you.”

Shiro was sure he would’ve kept rambling, but Adam suddenly surged forward and kissed him. It wasn’t a long kiss, it was messy and rushed, but Shiro wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

“Come back to my apartment with me,” Adam said when they broke apart.

Now it was Shiro’s turned to look nervous again. “Adam, I don’t know… a lot has happened and we still need to talk through some stuff. We shouldn't rush into anything before-”

“I agree, I don’t mean it like that,” Adam interrupted, blushing. “It’s just- it took so much effort for me not to come to visit you before when you were in the same building as me. Now that you’re here, I don’t know if I have the power to let you walk away. If I wake up alone tomorrow, I’m afraid this will all have been a dream.”

“I know what you mean,” Shiro agreed happily. “Of course I’ll come with you, I’m tired of trying to sleep in a bed by myself. Lead the way.”

Adam took Shiro’s hand and led him out of the office and down the hall, out of the building, and all the way to Adam’s apartment complex.

That night, Adam and Shiro both slept better than they had in three deca-phoebs.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I've been thinking about Shiro coming out and Adashi for four days now, and finally I just decided that I had to write my own version of what happens after Shiro and gang finally make it back to Earth. It's like two in the morning now, so although I tried to proofread it all, I'm sorry if I missed some mistakes in the writing.
> 
> Also, thank you to @rookiek13 on tumblr for having a post that I used to help make sense of Altean time measurements!!!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading my work, and if you did, please leave your comments and kudos below, plus check out some more of my work if you're interested!


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